Descensus Averno Facilis Est
by ravioliformuolix
Summary: What if it had been Alec to give Asmodeus his memories? How would the shadowhunters get him back?


prologue

Alec Lightwood lived a very normal life, thank you very much. He was an only child whose parents had died just before he was eighteen, and while he missed them he'd never been exceptionally close to them either. His mother and father were far too prestigious to be concerned with home life, and from that had come a certain comfort to being alone. He was always alone, and not in the sad, lonely sense. Just alone.

It was a dull ache when they died, and only a few months in foster care until he was out and living on his own at New York University. Aside from his brief time as an orphan, he'd had all the standard experiences any New Yorker might. He had a steady job, a professional major, and the craziest thing he'd done as of recently was jaywalk.

He was normal, painstakingly so, and right now he was doing the very normal college kid thing of running late to class. His roommate, who he'd met at orientation, had been the one to wake him, twenty minutes late as per anything Garrett did, and now with his backpack slung measuredly over his broad shoulders he was running to class.

In his first semester at the university, he'd never been late, not once, regardless of the fact that he had chosen primarily early classes. Alec always woke up early. Even before his alarm clock could buzz away, he was already up and going for a jog, or making coffee, or reading elegantly in his crummy common area that smelled vaguely of rotten fruit and old milk.

But the previous night he'd had the most intriguing dream. There were shadows, and lots of them. Things that moved just outside of Alec's vision and caused a sort of tension between his dream-shoulders. There were faceless people around, so many people that awake-Alec would be uncomfortable with the crowd but something about these people felt reassuring. Like running home, but the kind of home Alec wanted to be in. They smiled at him sometimes, and he'd smile back. There were two guys, and two girls that constantly kept reappearing. His whole life, he'd only known a few people, and even less he'd known intimately enough to feel what he was feeling in that dream. They were just flashes. Blonde hair on one, a chime-like laugh on another, green-gold eyes that seemed to hold the beauty of the world in their iris'… Apparently he'd been so caught up with these fake people he hadn't bothered to rise this morning. And his class was almost clear across campus. Figures.

He was just rounding on the Business building when he saw someone lounging on one of the benches that littered the walkway. There was always students milling around but something had caught his eye about her.

She was beautiful he could register that, but that wasn't what struck him about the lady. She had a curtain of jet-black hair that fell in methodical ringlets around her startlingly pale face. Her eyes were deep, almost black-looking in the dim lighting and set a shocking contrast from her skin color to her dark features. She looked up as Alec ran past, something sparking in her eyes- like hope, or recognition, or… something but Alec didn't have time to register it. He looked away as fast as he could, afraid to be caught for staring. She had pushed up to stand and Alec pulled the door to his class fast to avoid whatever confrontation would start between him and this stranger. She had started to say something but it was lost in the finality of the door shutting and Alec almost felt bad for the nameless girl. Maybe she'd just wanted directions or something, and if Alec hadn't been late to class he would've given them to her.

Regardless he took an empty seat towards the back and pulled his computer out to take notes. He felt bad about breezing the girl off, but she was a stranger. In truth, he'd probably never see her again.

xx.

Edom was a big place. Extensive in size and capacity, with large towering buildings to make any man or lesser demon feel small. Even with the eight of them-nine including Jonathan's body, they were mere specks in the full spectrum of Edom's realm. Nothing, Isabelle thought, could make them feel smaller than in that moment. Nothing but the rise of Asmodeus.

Even now, a month later, Isabelle could still remember the way he towered over their posse, the way his voice drawled like a sickening lullaby, and the way she had felt as if the ceiling had collapsed on every part of her body.

"The first two were free." Asmodeus had said with a (literally) devilish grin. Jocelyn, Luke, and Jonathan's body had vanished, but not before Isabelle caught a glimpse of the accords hall. Her stomach lurched, yearning for the comfort of Idris. With its white walls and air untainted with sulfur, her house with the bedroom just below her brothers, and her life- chaotic but irreplaceable. She just wanted to go home.

"The rest of you, well… that'll cost you." And his black eyes roamed over her friends like a feast, landing for just a second too long on Magnus. He was haggard looking and clearly exhausted. As soon as Asmodeus had singled him out, Alec had moved in front of Magnus protectively, his right hand going backwards to find Magnus'. That was her Alec.

Foolishly overprotective, and fiercely loving. She would've smiled at the sentiment had Asmodeus not continued.

"Demons feed on memories, this even the simplest of shadowhunters know. But-you do not know the extent to which it fuels my race." An anatomy lesson was the last thing Isabelle needed. "I require memories. A life-time's worth. One of you will suffice." He finished breezily, as if asking for the essence of who someone was like discussing the weather. Tedious and boring. Isabelle had taken a sharp intake of breath at his words. Magnus had said there was a price, but what he was asking was too grand.

"And if we refuse?" It was Jace. Of course it was her headstrong brother who's entire body seemed to wrap around Clary that spoke up first, daring Asmodeus to refute. But Asmodeus was no coward. In fact he looked at Jace as someone might look at a petulant child.

"Then you all stay here, and die, and I harvest your energy regardless. By all means, choose that path." And even Isabelle could see he had a point. The ball was entirely in his court. In fact it was like Isabelle's friends weren't even playing the same game as Asmodeus.

"So it's just memories you require? We'll all get to go back to our dimension, but one of us will just be a bit foggy on how we got there?" Simon, whose hand was wrapped tightly around Isabelle's had replied this time. His analytical eyes already mulling over the problem ahead of them like it was solvable. He wasn't a shadowhunter. He didn't understand the extent of the demon's words.

"I require life-time memories, the kind that with all but erase your existence, Daylighter. But I am not cruel. I will allow you to stay in the mortal world, as a mundane. Happily puttering around as if you had not seen hell, and it seen you." His eyes danced with fire as he finished, eyeing Simon hungrily. Like a lion and its prey. Something about that look unsettle Isabelle.

"Simon, you can't…." Isabelle begged, a sound foreign to her own ears. "Maybe we can divvy it up? Each give a year or two that would add up to what Asmodeus is asking and still keep us intact, it-"

"That will not do, little shadowhunter. The strength of erasing a person completely is what I require. And do be diligent in your decision making, I do have somewhere to be." Asmodeus said. Isabelle took a fleeting glance to look at everyone. Jace and Clary, with hard-set determined eyes that shown with love as they met Isabelle's own. Alec and Magnus who weren't facing each other, but who's knuckles had turned white as they held each other tightly. And finally Simon. Her loving Simon. He seemed to contemplate something silently, taking one fleeting look at Isabelle that made her want to hold him in her arms until the world stopped spinning. By the Angel did she love him. His lips parted, a silent I love you forming on his mouth and she knew exactly what he was going to do.

"I-"

"I am willing." Simon's words were cut off by a voice that cut like a seraph blade. The voice of Alexander Lightwood.

Now, as she stood in the corridor of some mundane college Isabelle could feel every painful beat of her heart. He hadn't even taken a second look at her. He had seen her, made eye-contact with her, and kept walking. She had refuted the Clave, fought tooth and nail, swore up and down that Alec was still a shadowhunter and that he would remember her-or Jace, or Magnus easily. They were family, all it took was one look at Isabelle's pointed nose, or arching eyebrows to see the resemblance. But when he looked at her, she could tell he saw nothing. Isabelle let out a sigh that shook her whole body, falling back onto the bench and letting her head fall into her hands as tears pricked her eyes. That was her big brother. The same kid who had her back no matter the situation, the same kid who watched over her crib as a child, and the same kid who had held her when she cried for Max.

"Another success, I see." It was Magnus. Dully-dressed in plain black slacks and a simple black vest, but still Magnus. Or what was left of him after Edom. He hadn't been as restricted by the Clave in his pursuits of Alec, but he also hadn't been persistent. Izzy knew with familiarity that he blamed himself for the whole occurrence. Alec's entrance in Edom, and his heart-breaking exit, but Magnus had also been the first to see him in his new life, and Izzy had a sneaking suspicion that that was what was holding Magnus back from kidnapping Alec and bringing him home.

Alec held himself differently. More assured in who he was, holey sweaters and all. He walked with purpose and none of the hesitance his shadowhunter self had in a crowd. He had a roommate he was getting along with, and he smiled easier… not knowing the pain he once had. He had friends, and went to small coffee houses with his peers, and looked at them as if he had nowhere else he'd rather be. Isabelle knew that Magnus didn't want to take his happiness away from him, even if it meant breaking Magnus again. He looked almost as sick as he did in Edom.

Isabelle had looked up, but it was useless. Her eyes were rimmed with tears and all she could see from Magnus was a dark outline. Maybe it was for the best, she couldn't stand to see the heartbreak on his face that she knew was like a mirror to her own.

"He-he remembers. I know he does. That was too quick, he didn't have a chance to-to think! He HAS to remember." It felt like a plea, and her words came out between shaky sobs. How had she gone from one of four Lightwood children to one of two?

She felt the weight shift on the bench and she knew Magnus had sat next to her and soon enough she felt his strong arm around her shoulders. He was shaking slightly too, and his head had come to rest next to hers. They sat there for some time, heads bowed and soft silent tears falling into their laps. Eventually she knew she would have to pull herself together. Alec had always been strong enough for everyone, and now it was her turn to be strong enough to carry her brother. Nothing in this realm, or any other would make her give up on Alexander Lightwood.

She should have been faster. She should have stopped him. She should have saved him.

Eventually the door adjacent to her opened up and out poured a sea of students. There was chatter and laughter and happiness dotting the crowd but both she and Magnus were now alert and watchful for one student in particular. He came out last, his worn sweater surprisingly tan instead of gray or black or something duller, and reading a notebook intently with a furrowed brow. He looked angelic.

Raziel, did her heart hurt.

As soon as she saw him, she heard Magnus take a sharp inhale and Alec's head snapped up. Blue eyes roaming over the pair. It was enough to make Isabelle's vision almost go blurry again, but those deep sea eyes just looked at them quizzically. Not like a brother, or a (ex?)boyfriend, or even an acquaintance. Like a complete stranger. The names Isabelle Lightwood and Magnus Bane meant nothing to the boy in front of her.

His lips had parted with an unsaid question, and Isabelle could tell Alec had spotted, and really taken in Magnus. For the second time today she was about to call out to him. Reach for him, cry for him, anything really!

But a voice called from the other side and Alec's attention was taken from them.

"Alec!" The voice called, and just like that Alec was walking away from them.

A/N: hello angels! So I finished CoHF and I was like 'hmmmmm... interesting.' when I read the epilogue, so without further ado here is angst! Let me know what you think, and thanks for reading!


End file.
